2012 China- Nanjing Foreign Language School

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My experience teaching:

I taught the 1st grade, ages 7-8. They were reallly cute, but very chatty in class and always touching my stuff. They have no worries going into my backpack or grabbing something of mine on the table. What I found fascinating was that the teachers leave the students on their own during the breaks. For real! When the chime goes off to begin the break, the teacher in my class picked up her laptop and took off for the teachers' room. The most difficult thing to deal with was the heat. It was 85+ degrees and that was with the AC. For some strange reason they had no problem leaving the 2 doors or the windows to the classroom open while the AC was running. I can't explain and didn't bother to ask. Once I learned how to work with the kids, they were fairly good. Many of the other teachers complained about how horrible the children in their classes were. The myth of the obedient Chinese student is just that. And this school is a private boarding school, so the parents pay about $30, 000 a year for tuition; and yes, that's American dollars.

Chinese teacher's job description

English teachers have it fairly easy. They teach 3 periods a day, but only have about 20 or so students in a class. The general classroom teacher has 45-50 students in a class. The size is about the same in public schools. Like in the U.S. it's generally easier to get a job in a private school than a public one.


Children's perculiar English names: Most had "normal" English names, but there were a few interesting and even disturbing ones. Examples: Apple, Rain, Candy (didn't have the heart to tell the 7-year old that that's a stripper name), Coco, King, Kobe, Tiger, Smile, Henry (for a girl), Twinkle, Banana (he's the one, not my student, that pulled his pants down in class while he was sitting at his desk and was cleaning his penis- 1st grade), Monkey, Mr. Animal Kingdom, YoYo, Rabbit, Carrot, Lemon, Sky, Robot, Angela Baby, Parrot, Unicorn, Octopus, Luck, Cinderella, Bob Bob, Snow, Sindy, Richer (not Richard), and Rainbow.

Disturbing names: Coffin, Dagger

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Photos

The first day with my first 1st grade classes
I had one class of 34 children for 2 1/2 hours in the morning and another 33 children for 2 1/2 hours in the afternoon. I have to say the stereotype of children sitting bolt upright, eyes forward, and quiet is a MYTH!!! The reality is that they are very chatty. I was lucky, but many of the teachers couldn't believe the behavior- constant talking, throwing things, falling asleep, texting on their phones, and the list goes on. And on top of that the AC was in short supply, so the rooms were often 85 plus degrees. Imagine that while trying to teach a bunch of "little emperors." Again, as chatty as my groups could be, I was lucky.

My other 1st grade class- last day
I have to say, by the end of the 2-week teaching "ordeal," I really loved most of my kids. At the closing ceremony every primary class had to perform, and the teachers said my kids gave the best performance. I felt really good about that.

Where's the teacher?
It's totally acceptable for the classroom teacher to leave the children unattended during the 10 or 15 minute break between sessions. Yeah, for real!

kids' hanging laundry
You see this everywhere in China. Hardly anyone owns a dryer.

teachers' nap room
We used this a lot. I think every workplace should have one of these

A typical Chinese meal, for us anyway
Breakfast, lunch, and dinner pretty much always looked the same. Most of the time meals were served at large round tables with lazy Susans in the middle. There were at least a dozen different plates of food.